Scarborough: When We Attack Trump, We Only Make Him Stronger

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

SCARBOROUGH: “Whether you’re talking about Corbin in Britain, Le Pen in France, Bernie. But I want to go back to what you’re talking about. I know about Trump University. I don’t think the question is why aren’t we connecting the dots. I think the question is why does everything stick to somebody like, say, Hillary Clinton but nothing sticks to Donald Trump.”
WOODWARD: “Well, maybe it does. But what is our job here? Our job is excavate.”
SCARBOROUGH: “To do what we’re doing.”
WOODWARD: “To explain who he is.”
SCARBOROUGH: “We are! You are acting like Steven Brill wrote the first piece on Trump University and everybody’s heads been buried in the sand. It’s a great piece. I have read it before several times and so I keep going back to the question why — Cokie, why don’t think things matter to voters?”
ROBERTS: “Because they’re not looking at policy.”
SCARBOROUGH: “This is a question of character, too.”
ROBERTS: “Well, yes, and no. But it’s entirely likely that at some point people will care when it becomes simpler, when it becomes just two people. All of that, it’s a chaotic cacophony at the moment but —“
KAY: “And there are people who care. He has still high negative numbers and those people care.”
ROBERTS: “And the late deciders have been deciding against him. What we’ve seen in each one of these elections so far is that the people who decided weeks ago are for him. Then as they learn more and get closer to the election those are the people voting against him.”
STEELE: “He has the high negative numbers but he’s still winning. He has the high negative numbers and yet people are still interested in what he has to say and they’re following his lead and this is not election is act ideology within the GOP. It’s not an election about policy and big ideas. This is an election about a populous of people who are ticked off and fed up. He’s saying I don’t want to take their money because I don’t want to owe them anything.”
BRZEZINSKI: “Which is the most impossible and distasteful policy thing that he’s put out there, I think it’s one of them.”
ROBERTS: “I think making fun of the disabled person, that was distasteful.”
BRZEZINSKI: “And tell me what the dpit polls have told me about how people feel about the Muslim ban.”
ROBERTS: “They’re for it.”
STEELE: “A fair point.”
SCARBOROUGH: “Trust me, sometimes people think I hate the ‘Times’ and other times I have people from the ‘Times’ saying ‘Could you please be our PR agent?’ The ‘New York Times’ on August 24, 2013, wrote a story on Trump University which just tore him to shreds. On August 26, 2013 — 2013, three years ago — they tore him to shreds. The ‘Times’ has been writing about Trump University for over three years now and the bigger question, which Hillary Clinton is why does this stick to me and nothing sticks to this guy. Because if there was one editorial in the “New York Times” as tough on Hillary Clinton as there was on Donald Trump in 2013, Trump University, poor Hillary would see her numbers drop 20 points. Donald just holds it up.”
WOODWARD: “So, Joe, what’s going on here?”
BRZEZINSKI: “We’ve been trying to figure that out and also look at what people are thinking.”
SCARBOROUGH: “I will tell you what’s going on. What’s going on is that when politicians endorse somebody against Donald Trump, it only makes Donald Trump stronger. When we attack Donald Trump —“
BRZEZINSKI: “Look at the Scalia situation.”
SCARBOROUGH: “When we attack Donald Trump it makes Donald Trump stronger because he holds up the ‘New York Times’ or the ‘Washington Post,’ hell, he’ll hold up the ‘National Review’. He’s tougher on the ‘National Review’ than he is —“ [crosstalk]
KAY: “You talk about Donald Trump winning despite all of these things. You’re right. He’s winning despite his negatives. We don’t know how that translates beyond an active primary voting public.”
STEELE: “When we get into the general election, there will be a lot of heads turning and just spinning out of control because if it’s a battle between him and Hillary, I’ve said this before —“
BRZEZINSKI: “My goodness gracious me.”
STEELE: “Don’t underestimate Trump in that setting.”
ROBERTS: “Can you imagine what he would do going after her? I mean, it’s going to be —“
SCARBOROUGH: “I don’t think anybody will now but so much —“
BRZEZINSKI: “I predicted that before it happened.”